Local leadership critical to save local hospitals

As hospital funding crises continue to spread across Ontario like a staphylococcus infection, there is no shortage of blame or of people ready to assign it.

Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas recently blamed the government of Premier Kathleen Wynne, noting hospitals in Cambridge, Sarnia, Sudbury, Ottawa, Timmins and North Bay were all planning nursing cuts to eliminate deficits caused by three years of frozen budgets.

Martha Peters, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local at Brockville General Hospital, takes aim at the same target, as CUPE plans a rally there Monday decrying local hospital cuts. The province, she says, needs to inject more funding into health care.

Considering the Wynne Liberals are calling it a good news story that the provincial deficit sits at $10.9 billion, it’s hard not to pin the blame on the government’s fiscal mismanagement.

So, it was odd to hear Opposition House Leader Steve Clark resist the opportunity to fire his own broadside at the Wynne government when asked, last week, about the latest round of cuts to Brockville General Hospital (BGH), in his riding.

BGH is so far sparing nurses and cutting non-clinical positions, but that could change, as the hospital must find another $1.9 million in this new fiscal year to balance its budget.

Clark perfunctorily agreed the Liberal government has some explaining to do on health funding, but preferred to focus his criticism on the BGH management and board, citing what he called “a lack of leadership.”

Most days, Clark likely would be more inclined to take on the Liberals than his local hospital board. His insistence, this time, on holding the board’s feet to the fire prompts a reflection on the role those local bodies have to play in this crisis.

Clark repeatedly has complained that BGH officials have announced their fiscal discipline measures without providing details or public consultation.

To be sure, the root cause of this proliferation of hospital budget cuts is a lack of provincial funding, caused by Ontario’s alarming deficit position. Since health care eats up 38% of Ontario’s total budget — a percentage that would be higher without that huge deficit — it’s hardly surprising to see health affected whenever the government attempts fiscal restraint.

It’s all the more important, then, to consider the steps leading from Queen’s Park to our local hospitals.

Funding flows first to regional local health integration networks (LHINs), which have long been painted by Progressive Conservatives as wasteful repositories of bureaucracy.

Former Tory leader Tim Hudak’s call for the elimination of the LHINs was heard and rejected two elections ago, but the most recent Sunshine List has again revealed the high number of LHIN officials in the six-digit club, potentially reviving that argument.

Hospital administrators also are well-­represented in that compensation club.

As the hospital funding crisis worsens, we would do well to look at both these levels of management in search of efficiencies.

Communities need to be involved in that search for efficiencies through an open and transparent process.

Middle management efficiencies won’t be enough to solve the problem. More fiscal headaches will remain. Local hospital boards will have the greatest responsibility to involve the public in finding the harder solutions, those that will affect front-line care directly.

The results still may hurt, but leadership and public accountability at this level will make the call for better provincial funding that much more powerful.